Blue Rose condo hotel makes pitch to investors

Suites in the planned Orlando hotel, which will largely cater to tourists, go on sale Saturday.

February 24, 2006|By Christopher Boyd, Sentinel Staff Writer

Developers of the towering Blue Rose hotel kicked off a campaign Thursday to sell condominium suites to well-off investors.

Miami-based CMA Cos. hopes to break ground on the planned Universal Boulevard hotel this fall. The project, with three 39-story and two 33-story towers, would be one of the region's tallest structures.

CMA principal Camilo Aguirre said sales would begin Saturday and that interest in the project has been keen.

"We have over 400 buyers preregistered," Aguirre said. "The response has been tremendous."

CMA is raising money for the first of three development phases. Aguirre said it has a $23 million bank loan to acquire land and undertake early development work. He said that construction could begin after at least 50 percent of the first phase is sold.

The first phase would contain 515 rooms and suites -- with prices advertised as starting in the $300,000s -- along with a performing arts theater, five restaurants and 75,000 square feet of meeting space. If the project is completed as anticipated, it would contain 1,300 units at a cost of $850 million.

Though investors would own the rooms and suites, the developers expect most units would be available to travelers. The project would cater to the demand for luxury hotel rooms that has grown with the expansion of the Orange County Convention Center, about a mile south of the site at Universal and Carrier Drive.

Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer spoke at the project launch. In an unusual twist, Adolfo Carrion Jr., borough president of the Bronx, N.Y., also spoke, saying the project "represents the possibility for a bridge between New York and Orlando."

Though the hotel is large by any measure, its height has drawn the most attention.

"This will be a 39-story hotel," Dyer said. "It will be one of the tallest buildings in the city of Orlando."

Unlike most of the area's tallest buildings, which are clustered on its most expensive real estate, the Blue Rose is beyond walking distance from the convention center and the other large nearby attraction, Universal Orlando.

Aguirre said that height helps elevate the stature of the Blue Rose.

"We don't want to look like every other midrise resort in the area," Aguirre said. "Ours is a totally different thing."